Startling Facts About Food Waste Around The World

Flickr/rusty_clarkBy 2050, the average person will consume 3,070 calories a day, even though people only require 2,000 calories. Keeping this steady path to over consumption in mind, while nearly a billion people around the world go hungry, we waste one third of the food produced globally.

So, why the disparity between food production and consumption in developed versus developing countries?

On the other hand, developing regions see food lost on the production level due to spoilage, a lack of modern transport and harvesting limitations.

Luckily, food waste is one of the planet's easier dilemmas to solve. While challenging, the solution will be more about changing people's mindsets than creating over-complicated, high-tech answers.

The first step? Understanding where food waste happens and how we can change the world by changing the way we eat.

The world's average calorie consumption is rising. In 2050 we'll be eating 3,070 calories a day. 3,070 Calories equals over five Big Macs a day, or over 20 cans of Pepsi in a day. CGIAR Research Program

Yet while 1.4 billion adults are overweight, 842 million are undernourished. CGIAR Research Program

So, what's happening? A lot of it has to do with food waste. Think about it: Both high-income and developing countries waste 1/3 of the food produced.

Food waste in high income countries happens at the consumer level, like what you leave on the dinner table. Food waste in developing countries happens at the post-harvest and processing stages. Lack of modern transport, storage infrastructure and financial, managerial and technical limitations contribute to these losses.